When The Grinch's Heart Grew
by Marissa3
Summary: Two enemies come together to defeat The Dark Lord because of her... because she's dead. Better summary inside. RE-POST R for adult situations
1. The Train Ride Home

**A/N:** Hey there! This is Marissa's friend Julie and when I read this story I thought it was really, really good. But since she said she doesn't have any time to add anything to the story she let me edit and re-post her story! I tend to make this story up to your expectations and hers. Although I'm writing the story which, is still hers, I will be writing under her pen name and all reviews (bad or good) will be sent to her email where we can both read them. I'm changing this story to a more deeper one and it is rated R for a reason. I like writing stories that have ADULT situations so if you don't like it, leave. It's as simple as that. This story is also a Draco/ new girl story, it is not Hermione and Draco! So all those who are so closed minded can leave but you are missing out on a great story because Marissa ran by the idea with me and it is soooo good! So lets get writing shall we?  
  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own any characters affiliated with the Harry Potter series. They all belong to J.K. Rowling and her brilliant mind. I only own the plot of this story... well actually Marissa does.  
  
**Summary:** One big secret can change everything. Enemies since they were born, they both come together to defeat the Dark Lord all because of her. They both loved her. They still do. She brought them together in a way that she didn't even know.  
  
**Rating:** R for adult situations and language.  
  
**When the Grinch's Heart Grew  
**  
**Chapter 1:** The Train Ride Home  
  
It was dark as he stood on Hogsmeade Platform. 'Is it supposed to be this dark outside?' he thought to himself. He felt rain droplets hit his face as he stood there on the platform just looking. Looking at what? Nothing in particular. He didn't even know why he was just standing there in the rain, just looking. The rain fell wetting his hair, seeping into his cloak wetting his clothes making him shiver. He was actually cold. He hasn't felt anything since that night. He was numb. Neither his feelings nor his senses felt anything. He just stood there looking up into the sky as the storm clouds passed over head emitting their racket and flashes of light as they lit up the sky above. It hasn't struck him yet, his eyes saw it but his head didn't process it. He didn't even cry. He hasn't slept or eaten in two whole days. He hasn't spoken. He had no reason to. Maybe it wasn't that his head didn't process what his eyes saw. Maybe it was he didn't _want_ to believe the truth. He heard talking somewhere in the back of his head, though distant and fuzzy. He just simply stood there as he looked around the crowd laughing, chatting, and walking with their friends. He looked around blankly, as if looking for something long lost. Smoke billowed out from the top of the red engine in front of him. 'Hogwarts Express' was written on it in gold lettering. He looked straight ahead of him at the train. He saw students climbing into it and thought he had better do the same. He took a few steps forward, turned, and looked up at the castle one last time with the dark storm clouds surrounding the highest tower. So many memories, yet so many nightmares. The place that had once brought him joy now brings him pain and discomfort. He looked back at the train and walked up the steps into the aisle. He ventured down to the last compartment ignoring invitations from the other students to sit with them. He slid open the compartment door, walked in, closed it and sat down. He looked out the window and watched as the few students still out there walked about before getting on the train. It wasn't fair. Why did he have to suffer? He wasn't suppose to. He was Draco Malfoy. Rich, snobby, got everything he wanted. He lied down on the seat as the train gave a jolt and started to move. He stared at the ceiling, as his eyes grew heavy. He knew all that loss of sleep would eventually catch up to him. As his eyes shut, he thought of her. It all started in this compartment. He felt a sense of security as he fell asleep in this compartment. He could sense her just sitting on the opposite side of the compartment just smiling and watching him. As his eyes grew smaller and smaller under his heavy eye lids surrounded by dark bags, he saw her. Just sitting there staring at him with that cute smile of hers. Was he dreaming? He wasn't asleep yet. It couldn't have been a dream. She looked so real, so angelic as she always did. Maybe it was wishful thinking. He knew she was gone. As his eyelids covered more than half his eyes, the picture of her across from him grew blurry. He tried to stay awake but it was so damn hard. "Don't go..." he whispered to the empty reality and all went dark before him.  
  
"I love you," she said in a sweet whisper smiling while lying down on his bed in his dormitory with her brown, shiny hair fanning out behind her head.  
  
"I love you too," he replied in that same whisper leaning down and kissing her gently on her soft, pink lips. As they broke apart they just looked into each other's eyes. "What would I do without you?" he asked her sincerely.  
  
"I'll always be with you," and they shared a passionate kiss knowing they would always be together. Suddenly they were in the Great Hall. People surrounding them, as she lied on the floor and him kneeling next to her. "I...I love you Draco Malfoy," she managed to get out in between coughs while tears streamed down her paled face.  
  
He looked at her from his spot on the floor next to her with wide eyes. As he sat there, he grabbed her hands and tightly grasped them in his. She was cold, freezing cold. 'This can't be it!' his thoughts screamed at him. "I love you too," he choked out. His throat was tight and he could barely breath.  
  
"I'll always be with you," she whispered.  
  
"I know." He leant down and planted one final kiss on her lips as she went limp beneath them. He moved his head upwards but didn't want to open his eyes. It was a dream! Yes a dream! 'She'll be right here lying next to me in my bed when I open my eyes,' he told himself. He pried apart his eyes as he looked down once again. Her eyes were shut, her face pale and cold as he lightly ran his fingers across her cheek. His eyes stung with tears as one single tear fell down his face and landed on her robes. He put her hands down on her chest as he hastily wiped away the tear. He looked up just as he heard a high, pitched cackle coming from behind him. He stood up with a wild look as he turned around, wand out and faced the person who had done this to her... and him.  
  
He sat up suddenly in his compartment and looked around in a cold sweat as he grabbed for his wand. As he realized no one was in his compartment except for himself he put the wand back in his pocket, took in a deep breath and slumped back into his seat. Ever since that night, that's all he could ever think about. Dream about even. Everything reminded him of her. When he thought of her, he thought of that night. The images of her dying in his arms would never go away. They were burned into him, into his brain and he couldn't get them out. He felt so alone.  
  
As he grabbed a handful of his robes and dabbed away the beads of sweat that were forming on his brow and dripping down his face, he slid over to the seat next to the window. He ignored the knock at the door as he sat in silence. Hogwarts castle disappeared behind a hill as the red train rounded a corner carrying hundreds of students back to Platform 9 ¾ at the end of the year. He sat there and stared up at the dark cloudy sky as the rain hit the glass interrupting his thoughts. He looked down at his hands, shaking slightly from the dream. He saw the ring on his pinkie finger. Her ring. The memories all flooded back again. The laughter, the smiles, the look on her face when she had found the ring at Christmas in a red box on her bedside table. He smiled slightly as he remembered the her look of surprise and confusion because he didn't leave a tag on the box. His smiled faltered as he remembered he would never see that smile again.  
  
He turned towards the window once again and watched the rain hit the window as the train sped over a bridge as a single tear fell down his face. For the first time, he cried. He cried over her death. He put his hands over his face as he let all the emotions he kept bottled up go. He couldn't hold it back anymore. The once mighty and powerful Draco Malfoy was crying like a baby...and he didn't care. He wanted her back. He tried to forget those unpleasant happenings that just kept playing over and over again in his mind. She meant everything to him and him to her. They couldn't picture their lives without the other. Never did they think it would end up this way. The boy with the blonde-white hair that now fell freely around his face and blue-gray eyes that were once cold and harsh now sat in silence filled with pain, and anyone that saw him could tell he suffered greatly. Whenever the other kids passed him they just looked at him with sympathy. No one really tried talking to him in fear that he might snap. Not that he wanted any sympathy. There as no way they could understand what he was going through. He looked out of it as it was. He liked his solitude now more than ever. All he ever wanted to do was be alone for the past two days. No longer did he walk around as if he was superior to everyone else, and no longer did he call the muggle-borns and the less fortunate than him names. Never did he think she would change him, Draco Malfoy, the perfect pureblood with money that was heir to practically the whole wizarding world. But she touched a part of him that no one could before. And when she left this world, she brought with her his trust, love, heart, and soul. He felt empty now. Nothing in the world could affect him. Not after she died. He had no emotions anymore. He didn't want to. 'Trust no one,' his father had told him once. I guess this was one of the reasons why. He trusted her, and look what happened. "It wasn't her fault though," he cried into his hands. Was it his then? Maybe he could have seen this coming if he wasn't so into his own dream world. Maybe.  
  
He felt as if he had nothing to live for. He was going back to an empty mansion. They spent long hours at night in his dorm just talking about what they were going to do when they got back to that mansion after the end of that year. Even if they just talked about it, it made him feel as if he had a purpose in life. Husband, lover, father, grandfather even. He couldn't wait. With his father in Azkaban and his mother gone he was free to pursue whatever life he wanted.  
  
His memories are all he has now and he plans to keep those memories. As he wiped his eyes on the back of his hand he picked up his feet and placed them on the couch on the other side of the compartment getting comfortable for the journey home. Not that he wanted to go home, but he had to, for a little while atleast. He finished his last and final year at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardy and is now a full time wizard. Freely using magic whenever he wants. But he must do it all without her, his beloved. The world just keeps spinning and there's nothing he can do to stop it. He turned his head back to the window and watched with red, blood- shot eyes as it passed through a field. He sat there thinking of how it all happened, when they first met in this very compartment.  
  
This is his story, their story. How they're love began and grew. How it made it through the hate and the disapproving thoughts of others. Even if he does somehow find someone else to love, they would never share the same love that they shared. Their love went beyond words. This is how the Grinch's heart grew.


	2. The Last Beginning

**A/N:** Still no replies? Well maybe this chapter... (wink, wink)  
  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own any characters affiliated with the Harry Potter series. They all belong to J.K. Rowling and her brilliant mind. I only own the plot of this story... well actually Marissa does.  
  
**Summary:** One big secret can change everything. Enemies since they were born, they both come together to defeat the Dark Lord all because of her. They both loved her. They still do. She brought them together in a way that she didn't even know.  
  
**Rating:** R for adult situations and language.  
  
**When the Grinch's Heart Grew**  
  
**Chapter 2:** The Last Beginning  
  
It was a bright, sunny morning on September the first. For a bright, sunny day one girl wasn't in such a great mood. She lied in bed as the sun crept through her windows at around 9 am and shown in her eyes. She squeezed them tightly shut wishing to go back to sleep. Wishing to re-enter her dream world to escape. 'Why bother trying?' she thought with a huff. She sat up in bed and was blinded by a horrible throbbing in her head. She opened her eyes and rubbed them with the palms of her hand to rub away the drowsiness. She ran them up her forehead into her hair twisting and pulling in every direction trying to make her head feel better. She scratched her scalp feeling the dry gel she had in it the previous day and dead skin collect underneath her nails. She tried to pull out some of the knots with her fingers until the ends of her long red hair were one big knot. "Oh God damn," she grumbled. Pulling the sheets from her curled form she sat on the edge of her bed looking around her room turning her head to the left, then to the right. She looked down at her pajamas noticing the black make-up stain on her red tank top. She placed her right hand on her thigh covered by gray sweat pants and took her left hand and fingered at the stain on her blouse, sitting there for about 15 minutes. Continuing to just stare at the stain she felt a tear trickle down past her eyelashes dripping onto her left cheekbone. She raised the piece of shirt she had in her hand and dabbed at her cheek. Lowering the piece of garment, she looked at a new black stain next to the one obtained last night still wet. She sniffled as she got out of bed and headed for the bathroom. She opened the door, flicked on the light and looked at herself. Her hair was a mess and she didn't want to think about the knots she was going to have to comb out and the pain it was going to take. Her red blotchy face was covered in streaks of dried, powdery black make-up also smeared around her green sapphire eyes. She crinkled up her nose in disgust. Not because of how she looked, but because she couldn't believe she cried herself to sleep last night. That was just unacceptable. Thoughts of last evening ran through her head.

( Flashback )  
She sat in the kitchen in her pajamas picking at the food on her plate. She looked up into the eyes of her mother. "What?" she asked annoyed. She just kept looking at her until, "I have to tell you something." Melissa watched her mom in silence, while she fidgeted around in her seat trying to look at something else other then her daughter. "Just tell me already." She didn't have time for this. Her mother looked up at her nervously, gave a heavy sigh and began to explain...  
  
"MELISSA!" She didn't care if her mom was calling her. She had to get out of there... fast. She ran up the stairs two at a time, down to the end of the hallway into her bedroom slamming and locking the door behind her. 'Lies! All of it lies!' she thought frantically. She scanned her room wildly looking for something, anything, everything to find some relief. She ran over to her night stand and pulled it out from against her wall, her red curls bouncing behind her. 'Want it, need it, where is it, where is it?' Thoughts flying around in her head as she pulled up the loose floor board underneath the night stand. 'Yes.' There it was. She grabbed one of the many bottles, put the floor board in place and pushed her night stand over it. She sat on her bed staring at the full vodka bottle in her hand debating. Throwing caution to the wind she twisted the cap off and chugged half of the bottle down. She pulled the bottle down from her mouth wiping her chin. Her head started to spin and felt the start of the effects the liquid would cause. A stupid smile flashed across her face as she felt her head get heavy and lean forward, slowly but surely starting to forget that evening. She held what was left in the bottle eye level and looked into the swirling alcohol. Throwing back her head she downed the rest of it. The bottle fell out of her hand smashing onto the floor. Her head spun as she looked around her room with tunnel vision watching her room go in and out of focus. Giggling insanely she stood up on her bed and started jumping until she was full out laughing her head off. She fell to her knees and crawled to the edge of her bed and peered over at the floor. The shards of glass of the empty vodka bottle laid a couple of feet away from her bed. She flipped over the side and landed with a loud thump on her floor next to the glass. Her stomach churned as her head spun and her eyesight was anything but clear. She closed her eyes and lied there for a couple of minutes. A knock sounded from her door and her eyes shot open, her body going rigid and her neck snapping towards the door. "Melissa, are you all right?" her mother asked from the other side. Her eyes shut tightly. "I know you don't want to talk to me but I heard some noises and –" "I'm fine mother." "Ok," her mother replied hesitantly. "I'll leave you then." "Yea, fine, whatever. I just want to go to bed" she slurred. Her mother's footsteps faded away and Melissa could feel the alcohol twisting and churning in her stomach. She felt the taste of it in her mouth and felt it as it made its way up her throat and into her mouth. She jumped up and ran as fast as she could into the bathroom and threw up the entire bottle into the toilet. She lifted her head and raised her hand onto her head feeling the sweat dripping down her forehead. Her back slumped into the cabinet next to her toilet. After taking some deep breaths to calm her nerves she got up and tried to walk back to her bed, swaying back and forth as she moved holding her hand onto the wall to guide her back and to keep her from falling. She finally reached her bed and collapsed onto it pulling the covers over her. "What did I do? Why me?" she cried into her pillow and fell asleep.   
( End Flashback )

Coming back to reality in her bathroom, she turned around and turned the knobs to the shower. She took off her tank top and slipped off her sweat pants and opened the shower door. Steam poured out of the shower head as she stepped in. She stood there frozen feeling the hot water pouring down over her head, onto her shoulders, down her naked body and falling on the floor of the shower swirling around and pouring down the drain. She felt her muscles relax, feeling her problems wash away and hit the floor of the shower mixing with the water, swirling around and pouring down the drain. Stepping out she wrapped a towel around her and opened the cabinet above the sink and pulled out an advil bottle. She downed two pills with a glass of water and walked out into her room an hour after she first got in. She pulled on a pair of blue jeans and a fitted white t-shirt. Another half hour passed by as she gathered last minute items into her trunk.  
  
"Melissa you're going to be late for the train! Let's go!" She lifted her trunk and walked down the stairs with it to the car. Her mother sat in the driver's seat and she put the trunk in the back seat and she hopped in the front next to her mom. They drove down the street heading for London to catch a train at 11 o'clock.  
  
"ALL ABOARD!" the conductor called as smoke billowed out from the red engine behind him bearing the golden lettering 'Hogwart's Express' across the body of it. Everybody was on board by now talking, and laughing, and catching up on gossip and talking about their holidays... except one person.  
  
"Now are you sure you have everything?"  
  
"Yes, I do," she said dully for the umpteenth time this morning to her... well 'guardian,' I suppose you could call her now. To think all the times she called her 'Mother' was all a lie. For the past 17 years she never really did know what a mother was. She was deceived, deprived of that, but she didn't know it until just last night. From now on she'd call her guardian because of the shocking news that felt like a thousand ton of bricks laying on her shoulders, a thousand knives stabbing her at once. 'Why now? Why me?' she asked herself again as her guardian's rambling on about making her proud and remember all that she taught her and what she did for her faded away into the distance as she looked around the platform. She took in a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh. She watched a boy with messy jet black hair and glasses, a red headed boy, and a girl with wavy golden brown hair with some kind of a badge pinned on the front of her shirt waved to a little pudgy woman in shabby robes. 'It must be the red head's mother, ' she thought enviously as she saw the bright red hair shared by the boy on the train.  
  
She didn't know it but a certain boy with blonde hair was looking at her from a window inside the train. He knew he saw her somewhere but couldn't quite put his finger on it. Of course thoughts like 'She's really cute' and 'I wonder what house she'll be going into' went through his mind. What else would you expect from a 17 year old boy? He looked to the direction that she was looking and saw the golden trio. 'Merlin, are they still here? I thought they would have been killed by now!' and he turned back to the girl. He saw her face give a light sneer as she turned back to whomever she was talking to, her mother he figured. How wrong he was. He liked this girl already as he saw her smirk. 'My type of gal.' He wouldn't let this one get away so easily. And yet at the back of his mind he could have sworn he met her before, maybe a couple of years ago. He needed to know for certain but thought it could wait. After all, she was new and who better to show her around the school than the new head boy? He turned back around to his moronic friends stuffing their faces with pastries and cakes and to a group of girls chatting away. "Well, another year has begun," he said to himself as he felt the train give a jolt and start moving. "and the last!"  
  
"Are you listening to me?" her guardian asked her because of the distant far away look on her face as she stared at three students sticking their heads back into the compartment instead of out the window.  
  
"What? Oh yea." She shook herself out of her trance and concentrated on her guardian. She turned around and saw the train wheels moving ever so slightly. "Oh crap! I have to go!" she called as she jumped onto the step in the doorway closest to her.  
  
"Bye! I love you!" her guardian called but she didn't get a reply. Melissa just looked out the doorway into her guardian's eyes and right before she suddenly disappeared from the platform she could see the pain and hurt in her eyes.  
  
She grabbed her bags and walked down the hall trying to find an empty compartment. She walked towards the end of the train and finally found one to the right side of the train. She opened the door and threw her stuff onto the luggage rack and motioned to close the door. She looked over to the compartment across from her for really no reason, and saw the same boy with the messy jet black hair staring at her while the red head and the girl laughed. She chose to ignore it and closed the door.  
  
"Stupid Harry Potter! I hate him," she scowled to herself while sitting on the seat next to the window. Of course she knew, who doesn't? Those famous green eyes, messy black hair, the glasses, the lightening-bolt shaped scar. The work of Lord Voldemort of course and she laughed. She sat smiling while imagining that night at the Potter's. Stupid James sticking up for the even more stupid Lily. 'Did she really think he wasn't going to kill Harry because she sacrificed herself? ' she laughed. But she came crashing back to reality as she remembered the news her guardian had just told her on the platform. She wiped all thoughts out of her mind that had to do with the Potter's. She was brought up to hate him and no shocking news was going to change that.  
  
She turned to look out of the window as the train sped on the tracks through the countryside. She wished she could stop time all together. She didn't want to leave her old school let alone start in this muggle loving school. Durmstrang was her home, her friends were there and she wasn't. How wrong was this picture? Never in her life did she think she would go to Hogwarts! Her face contorted in disgust at the very thought of it. 'My whole very way of life has just been ruined, ' she thought to herself as she watched the trees go flying past her window.  
  
"Well, I might as well get dressed into my robes." She stood and pulled her luggage down from the rack and searched through it to the very bottom where she found them. She took off her pants and shirt and slipped on the school uniform. She looked around the compartment in search for a mirror, but found no success. 'Oh for heaven's sake! ' she thought angrily as she pulled out her wand, a 12 inch oak, with a hint of red wood and a unicorn's tail hair. She was very found of her wand and kept it in mint condition. She held up her wand facing the wall just above the seat on the other side of the compartment from her. "Mirarse!" she declared while waving the wand in the air. Out of nowhere a thin black line drew the outline of a mirror and soon the whole thing hung there in front of her. Smiling at her handy work she slipped the wand into the inside pocket on her robes.  
  
"I'm good," she complimented herself as she looked up into the mirror. "ARGH! I look hideous!" she exclaimed as she saw her reflection in the mirror. She took out her wand once again as she looked back down at her uniform. A little spell here, a little spell there and, "There!" She looked back up into the mirror and smiled. "There you are Melissa! I new I would find you somewhere in there!" She had dark red hair that hung down to her lower back perfectly straight with a hint of gold highlights in it, tan skin and she looked straight into her gorgeous green eyes, almost like sapphires. She liked her eyes best as she got all her compliments because of them. Her skirt was shorter of course, a must be to her, and they hung to the middle of her thighs. She unbuttoned the top two buttons of her shirt to show some skin decorated with a silver necklace.  
  
She walked back over to her seat next to the window and pulled up her knee- highs and slipped on her three-inch heels. 'If I do have to go to this school, why not look good and turn a few heads while I'm there' she shrugged. She lied down on the couch and put her hands underneath her head so she could still look up out of the window. They were now crossing a bridge and white fluffy cumulus clouds filled the sky with a bright blue background. She wondered how much farther there was to go and started to examine the shapes of the clouds. She just finished saying that one looked like a snake as her eyes started to get heavy and soon she couldn't hold them open anymore. She let her eyes fall shut as she fell into a deep sleep. 


	3. Sweet Reunions

**A/N:** Come on people!!!! This story can't be that bad, is it? P-p-p-please review!!  
  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own any characters affiliated with the Harry Potter series. They all belong to J.K. Rowling and her brilliant mind. I only own the plot of this story... well actually Marissa does.  
  
**Summary:** One big secret can change everything. Enemies since they were born, they both come together to defeat the Dark Lord all because of her. They both loved her. They still do. She brought them together in a way that she didn't even know.  
  
**Rating:** R for adult situations and language.  
  
**When the Grinch's Heart Grew  
**  
**Chapter 3:** Sweet Reunions  
  
"That was a good one Ron!" Hermione laughed. "Harry, what's the matter?" she asked as she saw Harry looking at the compartment door across from them, spacing out. He looked as if he was concentrating on something hard.  
  
"It's nothing," he said truthfully turning to her. He wasn't quite sure why that girl caught his attention. It's just she looked so much like, 'Nah' he thought to himself. But he still had a feeling. He looked towards Hermione who had one eyebrow raised in suspicion. "I saw some girl in that compartment, I think she's new. I've never seen her before," he told her so as to not raise suspicions any farther.  
  
"Oh there's a new student?!" Hermione jumped out of her seat clasping her hands together. "Maybe we should go over there and welcome her to Hogwarts!"  
  
Harry and Ron looked at each other in pure shock, eyes wide and foreheads crinkled. They never saw her so excited before. Not since they joined that S.P.E.W. 'Probably wants to show off she's head girl,' they both thought.  
  
"What ever for?" Ron groaned as they rose from their seats to walk over to the other side of the train.  
  
Just as they stood up to 'greet' the new girl, a knocked sounded on the door. Hermione opened the compartment door and the woman with the treats cart was standing there. "Alright! Hermione we can go after we eat! It's a long train ride anyway." Hermione rolled her eyes and sat down as the two boys bought almost every snack they could. Ron closed the door behind him as Harry and him threw all their snacks in a pile on the seat across from them. They sat eating their cauldron cakes, chocolate frogs, and bertie bott's every flavour beans enjoying themselves. Well, Ron and Harry were. They weren't exactly in a hurry to say 'Hi!' to some new girl. Atleast not as anxious to do it as Hermione was.  
  
"So Hermione, why do you want to see her so much anyway?" Harry asked after swallowing a mouth full of cauldron cakes while Ron sat next to him reading a wizard's card from his chocolate frog.  
  
"I don't know. I'm head girl and I thought that being head girl and all I should welcome her to Hogwarts. Show her that people here are nice and ready to welcome her... you know set an example," she reasoned shrugging looking towards the window. Hermione turned back towards them as Ron went into a fit of coughs and Harry started to pat him on the back.  
  
"You all right mate?" A gray colored looking bertie botts every flavour bean went flying from Ron's mouth and across the compartment landing next to Hermione.  
  
"Gross," Hermione groaned wrinkling her nose.  
  
"Must have went down the wrong pipe," Ron said with a raspy voice in between breaths.  
  
"Well no wonder! You were practically swallowing those beans like you were drinking from a glass of pumpkin juice."  
  
"For your information Hermione, I chewed most of those beans rather well."  
  
"Ok Ron and I are done eating, let's go greet this new girl to get it over with," Harry interjected before a row could break out. They all stood up again, slid open their compartment door open and walked over to the other side of the train. Hermione knocked.  
  
"What am I doing here?" Melissa looked around her surroundings very confused. One second she was on the train going to school and now she was in a very dark forest surrounded by bushes and trees. No matter where she looked, she saw little red eyes looking at her from all directions. She heard the cracks of twigs and the rustling the leaves as she stood there in the opening. The little red eyes got bigger and bigger as they got closer and closer. Her breathing hitched in her throat and she began to walk forward but was met with a high pitched laughter. She stopped dead in her tracks. "Who - who's there?!" she stuttered, voice shaking slightly. More laughter met her ears as torches surrounding her and the opening lit all at once making the clearing in the forest show up. Finally she could see something. She searched around the clearing hoping to find the source of the laughter. They surrounded her. Tall men covered in black from head to foot stood where the red eyes were once staring at her. Hoods hiding their faces and silver masks underneath them. Each one holding a wand in their hands. She scanned the circle looking for some kind of way to escape. It was impossible. They blocked every exit. Each man so close together it looked as if they were connected at the shoulders creating a barrier. 'My wand! Duh! I know like almost every dark spell there is!' she thought frantically searching through her robes. 'Shit!' she almost yelled out loud looking up desperately. The wand was no where to be found. She straightened up as that merciless laugh sounded again, only closer this time and echoed through out the silent forest and echoing in her ears.  
  
"Missing something?" the voice rang out through the clearing met with sniggers from the cloaked figures. "Your wand won't help you this time." Melissa squinted across the clearing to get a look at who was speaking but only saw darkness. She looked around frantically once again growing more nervous and frightened every minute she was there, but jumped about 5 feet in the air as someone appeared in the middle of the circle in front of her with a small 'pop.' A hood also hid his face. He was taller than all the other men but looked most fragile. He looked almost impossibly skinny and as if a bone would break from the slightest touch.  
  
"Who are you!?" she asked with more force finding her courage. She watched as sickly pale, skinny hands reached up. Each vein shown a bright blue and protruded from his skin. The hands lifted the hood from his face and let it fall freely from his head. Melissa gasped as she saw more clearly who it was. She knew that face all too well. There in the middle of his face were two slits, red eyes bulged from his head surrounded by white skin. "Voldemort?!" she whispered, eyes wide and she dropped to the ground bowing and not making any eye contact.  
  
"Indeed," he nodded smiling.  
  
She looked up. "What do you wish of me?"  
  
He knelt down in front of her his eyes searching hers. A cold white hand came forward and lifted her right hand in front of them. "I know of your secret..." She looked horrified up at him. "but I also know of your loyalty to me. You can be very useful, that is if you do not wish to die."  
  
"Master?" She looked inquisitively at him. She didn't understand.  
  
"You will follow this mission and succeed. If you fail you will pay the consequences. You are going to be sorted into Gryffindor at the feast –"  
  
"No! How do you know this?!"  
  
"Did I say you could speak?!" he yelled at her.  
  
She looked down. "My apologies."  
  
"The question is, how do you NOT know you're going to be put into Gryffindor? Did you honestly think you were still going to be sorted into Slytherin after your true self was revealed?"  
  
"I wish I could still be put into Slytherin," she answered.  
  
"But that's the genius of it all. Being in Gryffindor will put you closer to Potter. Your mission is to befriend Potter, get him to trust you and bring him to me. He does not need to know of your secret but it will play a big part."  
  
"Yes Sir," she answered.  
  
"You do understand that if you fail you will be killed." She flinched at the harshness in his voice. "If you fail, I cannot have someone like you running around relaying information back to Potter and that old bat Dumbledore. I must know I am able to trust you with all the information you are going to be given and to know that, there is one more thing I must do." He raised her right hand and turned it over revealing the underside of her arm as he pushed up the sleeve of her robes. He took his wand and pointed it at the bare flesh. She did not hear what he was saying but no sooner had he started saying it a flash of green light shot from the end of his wand into her arm and she screamed in agony. The pain was unbearable as she sat there yelling the pain away out of her arm. The Dark Lord laughed as the other Death Eaters watched on.  
  
"Fuck!" she exclaimed as she fell off the seat of her compartment on the train onto the floor, her hair and face drenched with sweat. She sat there breathing heavily, chest rising up and down trying to catch her breath. She sighed, "A dream, just a dream." Suddenly she gripped her right forearm while it burned. She lifted up her sleeve and her eyes widened. There on her arm was the dark mark glowing red. She was startled at the knock on the door and quickly covered her arm. She sat on the floor picking up a handful of her robes and wiped her face off collecting herself as the person knocked again. She stood up shakily and opened the door. "Ugh!" she groaned as she saw whom it was standing in front of her. She turned back around and sat down next to the window once again hiding her shaking hands in her robes.  
  
"Hi! I'm Hermione Granger! Harry here saw you from across the hall and thought you were new here and so I thought we would just come by to say hello and welcome you to Hogwarts!" she said cheerfully.  
  
"Don't waist your breath," she mumbled back.  
  
"Pardon?"  
  
"Nothing!" she smiled sweetly. 'You have to make friends with them, don't blow it now,' she thought to herself. "Nice to meet you, I'm Melissa Norquest." She looked to the other two boys behind her and saw the oh, so wonderful Harry Potter standing in the doorway. The cause of everything that's gone wrong in her life thus far.  
  
"This is Ron Weasley" pointing to the red head who waved behind her, "and, well, you know Harry Potter." He just looked into those familiar green eyes of hers and smiled weakly, lost in thought again.  
  
"How do you do?" She forced a smile on her face.  
  
"As I was saying, Harry here saw you when you came on the train and noticed you were new. What year are you going into?"  
  
"Seventh."  
  
"Oh! You'll be going into the same year as us!" she squealed.  
  
"Oh goody!" but no one caught her sarcasm.  
  
"Ok Hermione, I think we've bothered her enough," Ron pronounced. She looked toward Harry who was once again staring at her. His green eyes boring into hers. She thought maybe for a split second he knew about her, but shook it away and thought otherwise.  
  
"Well, well, well, scaring off some new students already are we Granger?" a drawling voice rang from the hallway. The three Gryffindors rolled their eyes turning around. Melissa watched as a kid with blonde-white hair made his way into the compartment wearing a smirk. 'A sexy smirk I might add.'  
  
"What do you want Malfoy?" Hermione asked exasperatly. Melissa stood and took a good look at the kid and ran the name through her head. 'Malfoy? I've heard that name before, but where?' she pondered.  
  
"Tut, tut Granger. Must we always be so rude?" the boy fired back.  
  
"You're the one to talk Malfoy!" The kid named Ron answered.  
  
"Watch it Weasley, or I'll just have to make you even more poor than you are now!" Harry had to grab the back of Ron's shirt to restrain him from jumping on Malfoy. "Who's your friend?" he asked ignoring Ron and turning towards Melissa. Their eyes met as they both scanned each other over. Melissa watched as Draco's eyes traveled up and down, taking in as much as he could. He sure did like what he saw. She stood at 5'4 with that long red straight hair falling behind her. He traveled down looking at her long neck and saw some cleavage under that baggy school shirt. He ventured down ever further and examined her thin, toned legs covered to mid-thigh with her short, school skirt. Her body covered by the richest tan and looked smoother than the glass behind her. Melissa did the same thing moving her eyes down over his lightly tanned skin, over his broad shoulders and built chest, which she could see the very top of under his shirt. She could only guess the six-pack he had under that shirt. He stood 5'11 as Melissa brought her eyes back up and rested on his piercing blue-gray eyes. His hair hung loosely around his face in a sexy, messed up sort of way. 'I approve,' she thought to herself. 'I'm definitely going to go for this one!'  
  
"This is Melissa Norquest." Hermione interrupted their thoughts. "Melissa, this is Draco Malfoy," she introduced with disgust.  
  
"DRACO MALFOY?!"  
  
"MELISSA NORQUEST?!" they both yelled at the same time. 'Ew! What the hell was I thinking?!' their thoughts screamed in their heads at the same time.  
  
"I didn't know you went here! If I did, I would have been sure not to come here!" Melissa yelled. The three Gryffindors were caught off guard, jumped back towards the edge of the compartment and stood there in shock, watching the scene unfold with wide eyes.  
  
"If I knew you would have been coming, I would have left! I knew I should have went to Durmstrang when my father offered it!"  
  
"Nice try Draco! But Durmstrang was my school before I came here! And are you still going on about your father?! Get a life!"  
  
"My father is worth more than your whole family!" His face turned red at the thought of Melissa insulting his father.  
  
"You know nothing about my family," she said in a deathly whisper glaring daggers at him.  
  
"Aww, is wittle Mewissa getting all upset?" He put on a fake pout and started laughing. "Are you going to go running to your mother just like you did when we were little?"  
  
With that Melissa lunged forward and tackled Draco to the ground. His hands were crossed over his chest as Melissa held them there lying on top of him, straddling him. Her knee rested in between Draco's legs ready to knee him if need be. Her hair fell around her face touching Draco's and with their faces centimeters apart, she whispered, her voice dripping with venom, "Don't ever, _ever _mention my 'mother' again, got it Dracey? Or I'll just have to kick your ass so hard you'll be able to feel my foot in your mouth." She looked into his eyes wishing death upon him.  
  
Draco felt her warm sweet breath flowing across his face as they lied there, her straddling him and their faces centimeters apart. If it weren't for the fact that she was threatening him, he would have definitely taken the opportunity to engulf her lips with his. Draco pushed her off of him and she went souring through the air. She landed on the other side of the compartment with her hair in her face. She groaned as she wiped the hair away from her eyes and looked up to see Draco standing over her with his wand extended. His hair fell down around his face into his eyes. If his wand wasn't pointing right at her chest that second she would have thought she'd see a halo on top of his head. Right now all she saw were horns.  
  
"Did you forget we have wands? Any last words before I hex you to death?" he asked menacingly as he aimed his wand right at her.  
  
Her chest rose and fell out of breath from tackling him to the ground. "Yea," she slid her hand into her pocket and gripped her wand. "Better luck next time." She whipped out her wand and yelled, "Rictusempra!!!" and Draco flew backwards out the compartment door, Harry, Ron, and Hermione running out of his way, into the wall of the middle aisle of the train banging his head against the wall knocking him unconscious. He slumped into a heap in the hallway.  
  
"Oh my god!!!" Hermione yelled. "We can't leave him like this!! We're going to be in so much trouble!"  
  
Melissa lifted herself up and walked over to the door. "He deserved it!" she looked down at the limp body on the floor and looked back up to the three standing in the hallway looking down at him. "See you at the feast!" She closed the door with a little wave and smiled as she went over to the seat next to the window.  
  
"That was different," chimed in Harry as he turned his attention from the shut door to his friends.  
  
"I think this is going to be an interesting year, don't you?" Ron asked.  
  
"Let's get back to our compartment." Hermione stepped over Malfoy without so much of glance back. Ron and Harry followed.  
  
"Good idea, I still got some chocolate frogs to eat," Ron responded and all three stepped into their compartment and slid the door shut.  
  
She almost hated Draco Malfoy more than that Harry Potter... _almost_, but that still didn't stop the next thought that ran through her head. 'How can someone be so good looking and be such a jackass?' Her eyes grew wide as she realized what she had just thought. "What!?" she yelled out loud. "Eww gross! I hope he swallows some poisoned pumpkin juice and dies!" she yelled out in frustration. She looked down at her arm and lifted the sleeve once again. The mark was fading now into a dark brown. She took her left pointer finger and ran the finger over it lightly and slowly, wincing at the pain. "I thought it was only a dream." She looked at it longingly wishing there was someone out there who could help her through this. Wishing she had real parents whom she could join the circle with. But she had none. She hastily pushed that moment of weakness away and continued looking at the mark with cold, harsh eyes. If she was going to be part of his inner circle she was going to do it right. No way was she going to die because of that damn Potter.  
  
"We will be arriving at Hogwarts in 10 minutes," called a voice through out the train interrupting her thoughts. She covered the mark with her sleeve again and sat there as the train stopped with a jolt. She looked out her window and saw kids, ranging from ages 11 – 17, file off the train with their friends off to the carriages to carry them up to the castle. She sighed and stood in her compartment heading for the aisle to join the parade of students climbing off the train to begin another school year. 


End file.
